Gerald Ford assumed the presidency following the resignation of Richard Nixon.

David “Screaming Lord Sutch”, as leader of the Monster Raving Loony Party, was Britain’s longest serving party leader until he hung himself in June 1999.

Half the world’s population earns about 5% of the world’s wealth.

George Washington was the first president under the US constitution of 1789. However, the US was an independent nation for 13 years before the Constitution was signed. For one year during this time John Hanson served as “President of the US in Congress assembled.” Technically, he was the first president of the United States.

India is the world’s largest democracy with more than 600 million voters.

14 of the 45 vice presidents have become president:
5 vice presidents have been elected to the presidency: John Adams, Thomas Jefferson, Martin Van Buren, Richard Nixon, and George Bush.
4 vice presidents assumed the presidency after the president was assassinated: Andrew Johnson, Chester Authur, Theodore Roosevelt, and Lyndon Johnson.
4 vice presidents assumed the presidency after the president died of natural causes: John Tyler, Millard Fillmore, Calvin Coolidge, and Harry Truman.

Bolivia holds the highest turnover of governments. Since their independence from Spain in 1825, Bolivia has had almost 200 governments. Since 1945, Italy saw more than 50 governments and more than 20 Prime Ministers.

The youngest active system of governance is communism, which was introduced in 1848 by Friedrich Engels and Karl Marx.

The European Union was founded in 1957 as the European Economic Community. It then became the EC (European Community) and in 1993 the EU (European Union).

John Quincy Adams is the only president to serve in the House of Representatives after his presidency, which was for 17 years.

Electric lights were installed in the White House during Benjamin Harrison’s term. His wife never used them because she was frightened of the switches. Due to their tremendous fear, a servant had to turn on or off the light switches for them.

On election night in 1876, Rutherford Birchard Hayes went to his bed believing he had lost the presidential election. The next day, however, his Republican campaign manager boldly proclaimed him the winner. It was discovered that three Republican states in the South (Florida, South Carolina, and Louisiana) had sent in double returns. The Democrats screamed foul, until it was revealed they too, had committed election return fraud. Congress debated the election results for weeks. The year ended with no U.S. president-elect. In January 1877, Congress appointed an electoral commission to laboriously re-count the entire vote and settle the dispute. On March 2, the commission announced that Hayes had 185 electoral votes and Samuel Tilden 184. If only one of the 20 disputed electoral votes had gone to him, Tilden would have been elected. His popular vote was 4,284,020, and Hayes at 4,036,572.

A collection of highly romantic love letters from Ronald Reagan to actress Nancy Davis, whom he married in 1952, was published in September 2000 and became a best-seller.